The present invention relates to a combined electrical/lightwave connection arrangement.
Connections between electronic equipment and data communication channels are typically made by way of a data set, or modem. Although generally satisfactory from the functional standpoint, the modem has proved to be less than ideal in other respects. For example, a modem often brings with it a tangle of cables, connectors, transformers, interface boxes, etc. In addition, it may be quite bulky. As a result, there is often no satisfactory place to locate the modem where it is out of sight and out of the way.
Moreover, installing a new piece of data processing equipment, for example, or moving an old one to a new location, can be frustrating, time consuming and/or expensive. For example, the modem interface interconnections at a new location may be different from those at the old, and the required new connectors or adapters never seem to be on hand. In addition, moving the modem may require the services of a telephone company, or other vendor's, installer. Not only may there be a charge associated with this service, but also a delay until the work can be scheduled and performed.
In order to ameliorate the foregoing problems, as well as to provide enhanced data communication capabilities, such facilities as the local area network have evolved. Here, the equipment/data channel interface may be little more than a receptacle in the wall which places the terminal equipment in communication, via a (typically) passive communications path, with computers and other equipment within, say, a building or building complex.
A particularly advantageous way of implementing a local area network is with fiber optic, or lightwave, technology. A fiber optic cable is smaller than an electrical cable of comparable data capacity, and is not subject to electromagnetic interference, such as might originate from a building's electric power distribution system, and/or electrical equipment within it. At present, there is very little commercially available terminal equipment having a data input-output interface that is lightwave, rather than electrical. As such facilities as lightwave local area networks begin to proliferate, however, such terminal equipment will undoubtedly become commonplace.
In conjunction with this development, and as a step toward simplifying the installation and interconnection of optically-communicating terminal equipment, it will be advantageous to have a way of connecting such equipment to both the lightwave data communication path and the AC power system concurrently. In this way, the equipment--be it data processing equipment, alarms, or other "intelligent" equipment--will be ready to communicate immediately upon being "plugged in." At the same time, any such combined electrical/lightwave connection arrangement should be compatible with existing standard electrical connection arrangements so that (a) the same receptacles can be used to provide AC power to non-optically-communicating terminal equipment as well as to other electrical devices and (b) optically-communicating terminals can be plugged into standard non-optically-communicating receptacles when optical communications is not desired or available.